Summer Nights

The Pretenders

Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

Keith Bruce, four stars

A BLONDE Chrissie Hynde is still difficult for a chap of a certain age to accept, but the hair colour is the only obvious change in the appearance of the UK’s top rock chick since her first hit, Brass in Pocket, which made a belated appearance as an encore on Monday evening.

Regular Music could not have chosen a better opener for their season of Summer Nights in the leafy West End, two thirds of which are already sold out (John Prine, James Grant, Imelda May and Jimmy Cliff are your remaining options). Seasoned activist she may be, but Hynde is unlikely to object to anything un-PC about that opening paragraph. She catches herself both in a bit of glib condescension to the Welsh when introducing sideman Carwyn Ellis, and mockery of the eccentric dancing style of the woman she invites on to the stage for Don’t Get Me Wrong.

Ellis rocks a Brian Jones look on keys and maracas, the relative newcomer to a line-up with be-quiffed bassist and guitarist Nick Wilkinson and James Walbourne and original member Martin Chambers behind the kit that has been on the road longer than any other incarnation of the band, even if not on record. Alongside the oldies, there is a fair selection from the most recent Dan Auerbach-produced Alone album and a couple from her solo Stockholm set.

Inevitably it is the earlier hits that hit the bullseye though: the lament for her Akron, Ohio hometown My City Was Gone, Cuban Slide’s brilliant take on the Bo Diddley beat, the Chambers-showcasing intro to Middle of the Road with Hynde’s blues harp solo, and a version of Kid on which Walbourne not only captures the guitar sound, but also emulates Hynde’s own backing vocals perfectly.

Support Caezar are a new outfit formed by ex-Silencers JJ Gilmour and Joe Donnelly, whose anthemic I Am Not Afraid was their most memorable, if politically ambiguous, tune. Musically though, you’d have to say that their style has worn less well than that of The Pretenders.